11.06.11
Posted in Alltech National Horse Show, Show Jumping at 7:55 pm by Thomas
Last night I had the enjoyment of attending my first National Horse Show after having heard of this show for the last 30 plus years. Of course it is now known as the Alltech National Horse Show and was hosted at The Kentucky Horse Park. It is certainly one of the successes to come out of hosting the 2010 Alltech FEI World Games and we are thrilled to have it in Kentucky.
Onto the show itself, it was all general admission seating, unless you had connections to have a box seat at the end of the arena, but that also required suit and tie and after a busy Saturday not sure I really would have been up to getting all dressed up. We arrived a little earlier so we actually picked out some pretty nice seats on the upper end of the arena. There wasn’t a crowd but the arena was filled to a nice capacity and I would expect after a few years of Kentucky hosting it we would get capacity crowds.
I will admit my one goof of the night was buying my tickets through TicketMaster online @ $37.50 each, when we could have purchased them for $30 at the window. Of course I am one of those people that likes to have his tickets in hand before I go to an event, but a 25% premium gets my attention, especially when part of that you don’t see until you actually hit the submit button. Of course TicketMaster isn’t in the business of making friends, they are in the business of making money.
Now onto the competition, the horse and riders were of excellent caliber and did not disappoint. We had 31 competitors total and 5 had clear rounds within the 81 second time allowed to make it to the Jump Off. The Jump Offs are always what I think first attracts non-horse people to watch show jumping even if they never take up riding themselves. It was great to watch Jessica Springsteen(daughter of Bruce) riding Cincinatti Le Silla take 3rd with an excellent ride. This young lady is not 20 yet so I would expect her to win this before she is 30 easily. I know we had a blast and this will certainly be one of those annual events for our family.
I won’t type out the full results because you can find them here.
Kentucky Colonel
Thomas P. Demond
KyWEGO®
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07.27.11
Posted in Competitions, Dressage, Eventing, Kentucky Horse Park, Show Jumping, Young Rider Championships at 10:26 pm by EPR
Adequan FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships
Kentucky Horse Park’s Rolex Stadium: July 27-31
The NAJYRC is the premier equestrian competition in North America for junior and young riders, age 14-21. Young equestrians vie for team and individual FEI medals in the three Olympic equestrian disciplines of show jumping, dressage, eventing and the FEI World Equestrian Games disciplines of reining and endurance. Many of North America’s best equestrians who now regularly represent their country on Olympic, World Championship and Nations Cup teams got their first taste of international experience at NAJYRC. Watch a short video of last year’s NAJYRC.
Nearly 250 riders, ages 14-21, from 6 countries, along with their families, trainers, friends, veterinarians, farriers, judges, volunteers and spectators (174 riders from the U.S., 59 riders from Canada, 10 riders from Mexico, 2 riders from Columbia, 1 rider from Germany and 1 rider from Spain)
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10.05.10
Posted in 2010 Games, Disciplines, My Volunteering, Results, Show Jumping, Volunteerism, World Equestrian Games at 8:07 pm by Thomas
Today marked my 8th day volunteering and the 11th day overall of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It amazing to arrive at the Kentucky Horse Park early in the morning, even before traffic control, though there is already a lot of people working in the Park. Right now the Park doesn’t sleep, there is always something that has to be done and with any major event now a days, security is present around the clock.
I have now worked primarily in 3 areas, the Main gate, the Athletes gate and the area around Main Stadium. Today I was back at Main Stadium and with a Morning and Afternoon Show Jumping sessions and Para-Dressage going on just down the way in the Covered Arena the morning was hectic but enjoyable. As I have seen throughout my time volunteering the volunteers and staff are both flexible and resourceful which is always a great asset because in any event this size you are going to have those things that come up on a daily basis that have to be dealt with on the fly.
Now before everyone thinks its all work and no play, I did get to see Mario Deslauriers on Urico during my break have an excellent ride today, yesterday he won the individual Gold Medal in Speed Jumping. He did have 2 rails down but compared to some of the crashes I saw, his ride was nearly flawless, and the U.S. team is currently sitting 3rd on the leader board after today. The team competition final is tomorrow with there now being an afternoon session added to get to the top 10 will compete tomorrow night. Information on the added session can be found here, but the good news is, if you hold a ticket for the evening event it will get you into the afternoon session as well.
I have also been drawn into the Pin craze, if that’s what you call it. Apparently most of the athletes come with a sizable bank of pins to start and generally I haven’t even had to ask, I help someone out and they give me a pin so I have managed to gather a small collection, I say small compared to some of my volunteer friends who are sporting quite the collections now. The pin that is in rare supply, is the South African pin, and I know of no one who has it though I did have South African team members say that they did have some just not on them one day that I did ask. Obviously for those who don’t know me, my wife is South African and we had our wedding in South Africa almost 9 years ago, so it is certainly the Country pin I would love to land.
This week through Closing Ceremonies I am working all 1st shifts,yesterday and today that meant being at the Horse Park at 6 AM, starting tomorrow I have to be out there at 5 AM. So this post is the last thing I am doing before I head off to bed so I am keeping it short.
Kentucky Colonel
Thomas Demond
KyWEGO
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10.01.10
Posted in 2010 Games, Disciplines, Show Jumping, World Equestrian Games at 9:21 am by Press Release
LEXINGTON, KY—Forty-one countries have submitted definite entries for the Show Jumping World Championships, presented by Rolex at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
In total, there will be 136 riders and 138 horses, and 27 countries will field teams. In addition, Russia has withdrawn their entry in principle from the Show Jumping World Championship.
Definite entries for Para-Dressage, Driving and Vaulting will be available within the coming days.
Tickets to the 2010 Games are still available but selling quickly. Experience it in person by securing your tickets today at www.alltechfeigames.com/tickets or 1-888-934-2010.
About the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games
The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games are the world championships of eight equestrian disciplines recognized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). The Games are held every four years and this will be the first occurrence in the United States.
The Games will be broadcast on NBC Sports, which has marked the largest commitment to network coverage of equestrian sport in U.S. television history. The 2010 Games are expected to have a statewide economic impact of $150 million, and current sponsors include Alltech, Rolex, John Deere, Ariat International, Inc., Meydan and Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. For more information on the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, please visit www.alltechfeigames.com.
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02.27.10
Posted in 2010 Games, CCI****, Dressage, Pre-Events, Rolex Kentucky 3 Day Event, Show Jumping, Test Event, Three-Day Eventing at 2:16 pm by Thomas
LEXINGTON, KY—The 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will host its final series of Kentucky Cup Test Events, held in conjunction with the annual Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Dressage, Eventing and Jumping competitions will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park April 20-25.
Tickets to all events are now on sale. To purchase tickets to Kentucky Cup Dressage, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and Kentucky Cup Jumping, visit https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/team.asp?SponsorID=2513.
“This final series of test events will be an important test of the planning for many of the competition aspects of the Games,” said Kate Jackson, Vice President of Competition for the World Games 2010 Foundation. “By hosting sessions of different disciplines on several days, we will really be able to test many of our procedures for the actual Games.”
Kentucky Cup Dressage will begin the week of official test events. The schedule includes:
Tuesday, April 20 9:00 a.m. Dressage Grand Prix
Wednesday, April 21 10:00 a.m. Grand Prix Special
Thursday, April 22 7:00 p.m. Dressage Freestyle
The Freestyle competition on April 22 is a ticketed event priced at $15. All Kentucky Cup Dressage events will be held in the Outdoor Stadium. The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event includes:
Thursday, April 22 9:00 a.m. Dressage
Friday, April 23 9:00 a.m. Dressage
Saturday, April 24 9:00 a.m. Cross Country
Sunday, April 25 Noon Jumping
For more information about the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, go to www.rk3de.org.
Kentucky Cup Jumping will complete the official test events for the 2010 Games. The schedule includes:
Friday, April 23 7:00 p.m. Warm –Up class
Saturday, April 24 7:00 p.m. Jumping Grand Prix
Sunday, April 25 6:00 p.m. Speed Class
Saturday’s Jumping Grand Prix is a ticketed event priced at $20. Tickets to the Speed Class on Sunday will be $15. All Kentucky Cup Jumping sessions will be held in the Outdoor Stadium.
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